Krysten Taprell on her journey to becoming an author

By Krysten Taprell

I am not a writer, I am a psychologist. I have never pretended to be eloquent and able to write magnificent prose, but I have always wanted to write a children’s book. 

I have almost exclusively worked with children over the past 20 years. I love working with kids. I enjoy their energy and their way of looking at the world. I love it when they learn something and it really “clicks”, bringing with it such joy. I am also an artist, I love to bring life to colours and paint. So for me it made sense that the two would marry together and that I should write and illustrate a children’s book. 

While my dream was to create a children’s book that would help children and their families, I was not aware of the adventure this would take me on. I had the ideas, I knew that the strategies in my book worked, but like I said, “I’m not a writer”. I needed support from a good editor to make suggestions and changes that really brought my book to life. Thankfully the team at Little Steps publishing have been there every step of the way. It is amazing how a few changes to the wording or developing one part of the story more can have such an impact. 

Then there were the illustrations. What had I done? This was such a huge task and so time consuming while juggling the normal demands of life as well. I am so grateful that I didn’t have a time limit as I tried to master painting a character to look the same on every page. While I love to paint, this process was difficult. There is so much detail that goes into illustrating a book. Sketches, more sketches, then black and white drafts and finally the actual illustrations. 

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to fulfil my dream in writing a children’s book. The process definitely hasn’t been easy, it has stretched me in places I didn’t know could stretch. But I am so happy with the final product and I have a feeling that this won’t be my last either.